Reincarnate
by Blarggy
Summary: Set after Potential; When two old-hats are called to be executed, what will the Prodigy Hitsugaya, the Hybrid Ichigo, and the latest unknown entity do about it? -- HitsuxMatsu, IchixRuki, YoruxOC


Reincarnate

A _Bleach_ Fan written fiction story.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach or it's characters, they belong to Tite Kubo.

* * *

Hitsugaya couldn't believe it. Matsumoto, lazy, uncouth, drunk-90-percent-of-the-time Matsumoto had been promoted to Captain.

The Captain Commander had said there 'Was a need to replace the fallen Captains', and Matsumoto applied for Kyouraku Shunsui's former position three months after the Winter War.

It wasn't that part he couldn't believe. He knew Matsumoto had been vying to achieve Bankai for the better part of a decade, but he didn't think she would actually get it. He didn't think she would become the Eighth Division Captain.

_Captain_ Matsumoto.

Somehow he always felt she would be his Vice Captain. His second in command. Perhaps in a moment of youth-like naïveté, he had always assumed nothing would change.

Not that he missed her.

Her lazy, annoying, sleepy, drunk, oddly charming self.

No, not charming, definitely not charming. He did not think that.

And yet here he was, reminiscing of old times with his busty Vice Captain, when times were peaceful. That was before Aizen, before that man had enacted his plan.

Before Hinamori's death.

Captain Hitsugaya swallowed the lump in his throat, and continued with his paperwork. Which is why he failed to notice Matsumoto approaching his office. Until she broke down his door, her Captain's Haori fluttering around her.

"…Vi...Captain Matsumoto…." his voice lingered dangerously, his tone low.

"Yes, Captain Hitsugaya?" she promptly responded.

"You will be paying for that door, you know." he sighed, rearranging the paperwork that had been messed everywhere when she burst in.

"Sure, sure. There's a Captain's meeting in five, let's go!" she slipped back out the door, giggling as she went.

Hitsugaya shook his head, standing up, he turned to his third seat, currently taking Matsumoto's workload(and actually doing it), "I'll return directly after the meeting. Please finish the new orders by then."

He left, heading for the First Division.

The Captains all assembled within the First Division not long afterwards, standing aligned in the standard formation. With two gaps. The Third and Fifth divisions still did not have Captains. Hisagi Shuuhei had taken the Ninth Division Captaincy.

The Captain Commander entered, his cane clacking against the floor until he stopped before the assembled Captains.

"The Seireitei is in disorder, two Captain positions remain unfilled, three Vice Captain positions are still unoccupied. Leadership must be restored, so I have gathered the Captains here, to announce the possible appointment of two new Captains."

A dull murmur slowly permeated the room as the Captains expressed their surprise. Who could take the spots of the two Captains?

One came to mind for Hitsugaya.

"The first is Ichigo Kurosaki, for the Fifth Division, with Rukia Kuchiki as his Vice Captain." Yamamoto announced.

Ichigo and Rukia stepped from behind the Captain Commander, standing at his right. Byakuya gave the faintest nods; he had finally given up trying to control her fate.

"The second is Renji Abarai, for the Third Division. The Vice Captain position will still be unfilled, as Kira has resigned."

Renji stepped out and stood at Yamamoto's left. Rikichi, Byakuya's new Vice Captain smiled slightly at him.

"Both applicants are veterans of the Arrancar War, both have achieved Bankai and defeated numerous Espada and high level Arrancar." Yamamoto paused for effect. "All in favor of Renji Abarai becoming Captain of the Third Division." he finished, watching as the hands were raised.

Byakuya, Unohana, Ukitake, Matsumoto, Hitsugaya, Hisagi, Komamura, and Zaraki raised their hand. Kurotsuchi, did not, clearly unimpressed of Renji's failure to defeat the Ninth Espada. Soi Fon abstained from voting as well.

"Very well, Renji Abarai receives 9 of ten votes. New Captain of the Third Division, Renji Abarai." Yamamoto announced.

The Captain Commander's Vice Captain stepped forward, presenting Renji with the white Haori.

"The next vote; all in favor of Ichigo Kurosaki becoming Fifth Division Captain."

The vote was unanimous. Kurotsuchi raised his hand almost gleefully. Well aware of Ichigo's mask and the possibilities for research therein. Even Soi Fon begrudgingly raised her hand.

"Very well, then it is decided." Yamamoto finished. Ichigo was presented with the Haori, and Rukia with the Vice Captain armband.

The Captains were dismissed, Ichigo and Renji splitting up to meet their respective Divisions. Yamamoto spoke before Hitsugaya could exit.

"Captain Hitsugaya. I have decided to recommend a new Vice Captain for you. Enter."

As he spoke, a man entered, he was tall, much taller than Hitsugaya, about six foot.

"Yo." the man raised a hand in greeting. Yamamoto spoke before Hitsugaya could make any inquiry.

"This is Shukei Karasu, head of Patrol Squad seven, stationed in Hokkaido in the real world for the last ninety years. His skills and abilities are far superior to that of a normal Vice-Captain, but he requested it specifically as opposed to a Captain position. The decision is yours, Hitsugaya." Yamamoto stepped out, exiting through the door behind him.

Hitsugaya stared at the man for a moment. "Hitsugaya Toshiro." he stated flatly, extending his hand. The man took it and grasped it firmly for a moment before releasing it.

"Shukei, Good tah' meetcha, Toshiro." the man stated. He wore the standard Shihakushou, except the gi was sleeveless, exposing his toned arms.

"It's Captain Hitsugaya, to you. What makes you worthy to become my Vice-Captain? The Captain-Commander insisted that you were beyond Vice-Captain material. Why is that?" Hitsugaya asked, tersely.

"Because, Shiro. I can kick your ass." he stated simply, a small grin coming over his face.

"Cap-tain Hit-su-ga-ya. Come to the tenth's training grounds, I will test you." he spoke calmly, maintaining that calm façade he always tried to ensure was with him.

The two left towards the tenth Division. Hitsugaya took it upon himself to ask a few questions.

"So you were the leader of Patrol Squad seven. What was the largest hollow your group had to deal with?" he asked, glancing towards the taller man.

"Eh, when Aizen was doin' stuff, I believe we fought a few of those whatchamacallits. Arrancars! That's what they were. They was tryin' to harvest some souls." Shukei responded easily.

"Arrancar? A patrol squad? How strong were they?" Hitsugaya sounded surprised. All the other patrol squads that had encountered Arrancar were either slaughtered or requested immediate back up.

"Dunno exactly, one of 'em kept sayin' he was a former Espada. No clue what that means, though." the man said, scratching his head.

An ex-Espada, defeated by a patrol squad lead by a vice-captain level fighter? Impossible.

"I kicked his ass though, bugger tried to kill on of my buddies." Shukei added as an afterthought.

"So you beat an ex-Espada, all of which are around Captain level. Why then, do you want to be my Vice-Captain?" Hitsugaya asked as they arrived upon the training field, where several of the Division members were practicing their Zanjutsu.

"Good day, Captain Hitsugaya!" they announced, turning to bow to him.

"Yeah yeah. I'm going to test this man here, please postpone your spar." he said, stepping towards the arena as the unseated members stepped off, moving to the wall to spectate.

Shukei stepped into the arena, smiling. "Like the Commander said, I requested it specifically. Feel free to read into it, but you probably won't find anything." with that said, he assumed a fighting position, perhaps Kung Fu, but it seemed like a mix of several martial arts.

"I suggest you use your Zanpakuto." Hitsugaya said tersely, drawing Hyourinmaru.

"Ain't got one. Sorry ta' disappointcha." he responded, grinning.

"And you defeated an Arrancar without one? It's getting harder to believe by the second." Hitsugaya snapped.

"You'll see when you attack me." Shukei said calmly, his eyes on Hitsugaya.

Hitsugaya moved forward swiftly, aiming a slash at the man's side. He told himself he would stop before he hit the man, otherwise he may incapacitate his new Vice-Captain.

But the man vanished completely. If it was Shunpo, Hitsugaya didn't see him move. The slash cut thin air, and a voice chuckled from behind him.

"C'mon, Shiro. Why so slow?"

Hitsugaya whirled around, and as he did so, Shukei was upon him. Before he had time to defend, he took a punch to the face and was sent spiraling backwards.

Hitsugaya raised his blade, using his free arm to wipe blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Not bad. I shall use shunpo, then." Hitsugaya said quietly. He vanished from view, using shunpo to get behind Shukei. But as he swung his blade towards the back of his opponent, Shukei vanished again, even from Hitsugaya's view.

"Hado number one hundred and one. Azure Flame." as these words floated into Hitsugaya's ears, he became confused. There were not 101 destructive spells. Was the man playing with him?

He spun in midair, only to find that Shukei was not there. Instead, he sensed his opponent's reiatsu at the other end of the arena. He turned again, landing silently on his feet with Hyourinmaru clutched in his hands.

Shukei was there, his shihakusho fluttering _away_ from his right hand. In the hand was a pale light blue flame, or what seemed to be flame, in roughly a ball shape, with the uppermost part reaching upward as your regular flame would.

Hitsugaya's ice blue eyes widened, staring at the man suspiciously. "There is no Hado one hundred and one. So what is that?" he asked in a commanding voice.

"It's my weapon. Azure Flame. The hado I invented when I realized I'd never get anywhere without a zanpakuto, no matter how fast I was. Wanna test it?" Shukei grinned in a slightly twisted manner. "There's a reason I named it one hundred and one. It's stronger than all the other hado."

And with that he vanished. Hitsugaya barely had time to block the strike, which, he noted, was in a tiger claw manner. The palm facing out, with the fingers curled back like claws. The block didn't work quiet as he'd imagined in his mind. Instead, the fire erupted out of Shukei's palm, making a massive explosion of azure. Hitsugaya came sliding out of the explosion from the force, his Haori ruined, the upper half of his shihakusho ruined, and his flesh slightly burnt from the flames.

He panted hard, staring at the cloud of smoke as it cleared, and there stood Shukei, unharmed by the explosion, with two of the azure balls now in his hands. He closed them tightly, and the flames seemed to catch onto his fists instead, providing, Hitsugaya gathered, a stronger punch.

Shukei vanished again, and Hitsugaya spun around to meet him. "Sit upon the frozen heavens, **HYOURINMARU**!" he yelled as he did so, the blade erupted into ice, and slammed into the fist of Shukei, spinning his body backwards. Unfortunately, his foot came flying up to meet Hitsugaya's stomach, and on it was another Azure flame.

The explosion was massive, sending Hitsugaya flying across the field, and his subordinates running to see if he was okay.

But he was already standing, showing his resilience, something they admired.

"Very well. You have proven yourself worthy. If you so wish, you may become my Vice-Captain." he said gruffly, brushing himself off. He'd not used any of his reiatsu or his Bankai, but the man before him was definitely strong.

Shukei grinned. "Knew you'd see it my way, Shiro."

"It's DEFINITELY Captain Hitsugaya now that you're my subordinate." the boy in question growled.

"Sure sure, Shiro." Shukei added, smirking.

Hitsugaya would have popped a vein, but he had far superior control. Sort of.

He was interested in this man. Who invented his own kido, and somehow moving faster than a Captain could, albeit not using Bankai. "You've ruined my uniform, Karasu." he added idly, sliding his sword into it's sheath.

"Come on. We'll go to the tenth to get another uniform, and here." Hitsugaya reached into his pocket and removed the Lieutenants Badge, holding it out to Shukei.

"You can use my first name, _Captain_ _Hitsugaya_." Shukei added, grabbing the badge. After a moment of contemplation where he realized without a sleeve it wouldn't stay on his arm. So instead, he slipped it onto his belt and retied it.

"No thank you, Vice-Captain Karasu." Hitsugaya spoke coldly, walking away from the arena, ignoring the bowing unseated shinigami, who soon went back to fighting, perhaps inspired by the fight they witnessed.

Shukei stepped off with him, and Hitsugaya began 'showing him the sights', so to speak. They walked past the mess hall, the three official training areas, the domed dojo which surpressed reiatsu, and the medical office.

"I assume, since you were the head of a patrol squad, you can do paperwork?" Hitsugaya asked, turning to face him.

"Don't like it, but I can do it. Ya' know what I mean?" he responded deftly, already having prepared his answers for the obvious questions.

"Good, you'll be doing it. While I've been doing most of the Tenth's paperwork for the last decade, I'm not keen to get right back into doing all of it again." Hitsugaya added before stepping off to the right into a slightly larger house. It was his home, nothing extravagant, even as a Captain he didn't want a large house.

Shukei leaned against the wall until Hitsugaya returned a few minutes later with a new uniform on, looking as pristine as if he had not been in a fight. Apparently Captains valued their looks as much as women.

The younger man ran a hand through his hair, and glanced at his new Vice-Captain. The man was tall, around six feet, he had a smooth tan from constantly working in the sun, he had medium length shaggy black hair and very blue eyes. He was, in a word, handsome. His body was not overly muscular, but he was lean and toned. Hitsugaya's build, but taller; the type of man Hitsugaya wished to become, so as to command more respect.

"Where to?" Shukei asked, interrupting the young man's train of thought.

"We're going to the barracks to introduce you to the squad. Don't expect much, though, they probably won't like you until you earn their trust." he responded as the two started off towards the main barracks.

Hitsugaya received many bows and "Good Morning Captain!"s, whereas Shukei got some odd looks, specifically towards his waistband where the Vice-Captain badge sat.

When they arrived, Hitsugaya assembled the squad and made a simple announcement.

"Here's your new Vice-Captain."

Shukei stepped forward, "Yo, I'm Shukei Karasu, former head of Patrol Squad Seven. Nice ta' meetcha." he said easily, sliding his hands into his pockets. Murmurs broke out, such as 'A patrol squad member? How the hell did he get vice-captain?', 'Probably bribed his way in.', 'Probably some noble weakling'. In the thirteen squads, Patrols were widely regarded as weaklings who always asked for assistance.

Hitsugaya heard, and was rather annoyed that his squad would doubt his choice for a Vice-Captain. "If anyone thinks this appointment was wrong or wrongfully gained, please, you are welcome to fight him for the position." he said tersely.

The unseated shinigami who had been watching the earlier fight stepped backwards and glanced around. A few shinigami, including the fourth seat stepped forward and grinned. "Yeah, I'll fight 'im. He doesn't look strong!" the large man announced, cracking his knuckles grinning as he reached for his zanpakuto.

Shukei moved forward, quickly. Too quickly for the fourth seat to follow, a hard kick was delivered to the man's gut, and the man doubled over, his face lowering to a more easily accessible level. Shukei allowed his right foot, the kicking one, to lower to the ground before spinning his left leg off the ground and delivering a hard roundhouse kick to the man's head, sending him flying into the others who wanted to contest the position. They all went flying into the wall, knocked out effortlessly by the new Vice-Captain, who hadn't even removed his hands from his pockets.

"Anyone else think he made it in on dirty money or corrupt officials?" Hitsugaya asked coldly, the temperature of the room dropping a few degrees.

The men stepped back again, if ever one could sweat drop, there would have been a group one.

"Right, then please welcome him as you would any member of the squad." Hitsugaya announced to the crowd, who all nodded numbly, before moving to try and pick up their fellow squad mates who had made the mistake of threatening Shukei.

The remainder of the day passed in a boring fashion, and as such, Shukei did not bother to commit any of it to specific memory. Instead, he spent most of the day playing pong in his head. Vice-Captain duties were about as challenging as taking candy from a rock.

There was something more, of course, that occurred that day. In actuality, it was just past midnight, so in fact the next day.

As he lay on his uncomfortable futon, hands splayed behind his head, clearly waiting for something, a dark shape appeared on the shoji door to his quarters, the silhouette of a woman. Her voice was slightly cracked, suggesting she didn't use it often.

"Back so soon, Shu?" were the words that quietly floated through the door.

Shukei leaned himself up to look at the door, a small smirk placing itself upon his lips. "Obviously. I'm a patrol squad member this time, the Captain-Commander hasn't noticed yet." the man laughed slightly.

"Be careful." the feminine voice responded, tone steely.

"Will do. Just make sure he comes through for me." Shukei said, leaning back down to bed as the figured blurred out of existence.

* * *

This is the first chapter of Reincarnate, starring Hitsugaya, Matsumoto, and an OC of my design. This is set just after Potential, and I will try to balance between Hitsugaya's, Ichigo's, and Shukei's storyline. Bear with me, as I am still in school, my free time is limited. I'll try to update as much as possible, but reviews will make it faster. :D

Shukei Karasu is mine, and so is this picture of him.

daennah deviantart com /art/Kiriban-5775-hits-95764746

(Just fix the silly URL)

Read and Review!

Blarggy


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